FIND command that will recognize multiple lines of text at once
@john.uhden wrote:
.... I'm just ignorant enough to ask what you mean by "hard returned."
To me you might be referring to lines of mtext that don't wrap to the next line but are forced by a "hard return" ("\\P"). ..... Might you have an example of what you are trying to find?
This is a transfer to this Forum of another thread started in the AutoCAD Forum, >here<. Yes, it's about a new line caused by a hard return [Enter] rather than Mtext-box-width word wrapping. There is an example there.
Are they always in the same format? I made one like your "before" example, and this is how the text content shows in Properties:
Are yours always an imperial size with %%C making the diameter symbol, followed by a space and UP [or, presumably, DN], followed by the new-line return represented as \P, followed by the bracketed metric equivalent? If so, an AutoLisp routine could certainly be written that will find all Mtext objects with content formatted like that, and replace it with just the metric text followed by the diameter symbol, space, and UP [or DN] as in your example.
@john.uhden wrote:
.... How about the difference between "\n" and "\P?"
I don't think "\n" ever occurs as a new-line code in Mtext content -- it's the AutoLisp new-line for things like prompts. They're talking about finding this kind of multiple line content in existing Mtext objects.
@anderson51 wrote:
.... I could see this being super useful with any string of text. ....
How do you envision this working? Like FIND, where you enter a text string, and it finds objects including it even if that crosses from one line through a hard return to the next line? I am picturing a routine looking for Mtext with "\\P" in string content, in an (ssget) function, which can find things containing such hard returns [and "\n" could be added, if it should also find things done with Shift+Enter as @john.uhden describes]. This will select/grip/highlight all Mtext objects that contain the \\P variety of new-line return, anywhere in them:
(sssetfirst nil (ssget "_X" '((0 . "MTEXT") (1 . "*\\P*"))))
But suppose you were looking for things containing "this is a test" that might be wrapping to a new line in such a way. Presumably you would want to find them even if there was no such new-line wrapping, too, or if it wraps caused by box width rather than by Enter, as regular FIND will. If it wraps, the object's text content could contain "this\\Pis a test" or "this is\\Pa test" or "this is a\\Ptest" or any of them with a space adjacent to the Enter, on either side, such as "this is \\Pa test". An AutoLisp (ssget) function can't search for a specific string of characters with another set of other characters that might fall anywhere within it [or not at all] -- it needs something more specific to work with. I'm having a hard time imagining how to cover all the possibilities. And replacing it would have similar complications -- suppose you wanted to replace "this is a test" with "I give up", how should it position the \\P in the replacement content? Etc., etc.
Wish you would still take the time to explain what problem you are trying to solve with screenshots and an actual DWG sampe file.
Here is what you posted in the other thread last time, I assume you still want to to do the same, namely remove/delete the first line of textand replace it with the second line of text
@pendean wrote:
.... remove/delete the first line of textand replace it with the second line of text
It's not as simple as that. It's to replace the imperial measurement part of the first line with the metric measurement, with the Ø and the space and the UP in the first line retained, but now following the metric measurement, and eliminate the brackets around the metric one.
But see Message 8. That's just one example -- what they really want it to be able to find a text string within Mtext objects even if it may have a hard return within it somewhere forcing a new line.
@anderson51 wrote:
.... a FIND/REPLACE on that MLeadered string of text that has ALL of the text included. ....
If ALL the text includes the hard return always included and always in the same place, that's not hard. If you'd select an object and want to find all others with the same text content in the same configuration in those respects, that can be done:
(setq mt (car (entsel "\nSource object for text-content replacement: ")))
(sssetfirst nil (ssget "_X" (vl-remove-if-not '(lambda (x) (member (car x) '(0 1))) (entget mt))))
Then all objects of the same object type and with the same text-string content [including any hard returns if any, of either variety, in the same position within each] will be selected/highlighted/gripped, and you can put your replacement text content right in the Contents slot in the Properties palette.
@anderson51 wrote:
This sounds like the answer. How do I use this? ....
Try it first, by just copying/pasting in at the command line, one line at a time [the first line first, and follow the selection instruction, then paste in the second line]. If it does what you want, it can be defined into a command name you could type in, and/or put into a Tool Palette button you could pick on.
